Sunday, September 27, 2015

Interview with Kae Elle Wheeler author of The Price of Scorn

Alexis: Today
we have Fairytale Fantasy author Kae Elle Wheeler who is talking about her
release The Price of Scorn. Welcome Kae Elle!

What made you choose this title?

Kae
Elle: Have you ever thought about Cinderella’s Evil
Stepmother? What made her so mean, so evil? Well, I suppose I wondered and
thought, most people turn out the way they do for a reason. There might be an
exception here and there—which always makes me think of that movie, The Bad
Seed. That’s a great movie, but in most cases, I believe people are equal
products of environment and heredity. So, if someone were raised “Scorned” in
almost every aspect, there would be a price.

Alexis:
Interesting. Which authors inspire you?

Kae Elle: My absolute favorite author is Jayne Ann
Krentz. She also writes historical and paranormal. I read ALL of her books. I
love the quirky heroines and how they always seem to throw a wrench into the
hero’s plan for the ultimate revenge. Which ends up turning him into the
perfect hero because he has to stand by his word, but hadn’t expected her
inadvertent interference. It cracks me up.

Alexis:
That's great :-) What are you working on now?

Kae Elle: Currently, I’m re-editing The English Lily
which is a side book of The Surprising Enchantress – book iii of my Cinderella
Series. I’m also writing Pampered – Martini Club 4 – The 1940s. Part of a
series with my Martini Club 4 friends. The 1920s series came out last February.
Talk about fun!

Alexis: So where did you get the idea for The Price of Scorn?

Kae Elle: It was really the readers who left reviews for
the first three books in the series. They were dying to know what happened to
the evil stepmother, wanting her to “get her due” and in a strange twist, she
did. I just don’t think the readers were expecting to feel bad for her. I’m
quite pleased with the reviews.

Alexis:
How
long did it take you to write this book? Why?

Kae Elle: I started the story almost two years ago. I was
at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. Originally, I felt the story
would be no longer than 20k words and would just give it away to readers who
bought the original three stories. Hm. Didn’t quite turn out that way. It fit
right in with the length of the other books.

Alexis:
I bet your readers were happy about that :-) Thank
you Kae Elle for visiting Happily Ever After Thoughts. It was great to have you.

Check out the excerpt below from The Price of Scorn.

Excerpt:

“SO, WE’RE TO HAVE a new
papa?” Pricilla stood on her tiptoes, surveying the array of items laid out on
Hilda’s vanity. To a curious child it must resemble a market full of sweet
meats for the taking.

Her glance moved from a
sleeping Esmeralda on a pallet before the hearth to Pricilla. Hilda took a
small jeweled box from Pricilla’s hands and set it back on the vanity out of
reach.

Her nose wrinkled as she
studied the clasp. “That if you married him, he would be more a papa than
Gustaf ever had been.” She gave up on the necklace, dropping it back on the
vanity before latching onto the matching bracelet and slipping it onto her
wrist.

“That’s certainly true
enough,” Hilda muttered under her breath. Gustaf had been a menace. But instincts
warned Dirk would be just as awful, in perhaps a different way. “But as things
stand, I plan on marrying no one.”

“Here, of course,” Hilda
told her. She lifted Pricilla’s wrist and surveyed the gap that would fit an
additional wrist or two. “Very nice.”

“But I heard him say if you
didn’t marry him, we should have to leave.” Tears shimmered into luminescent
pools. “That we should have to live in the woods—in the dark.” Her tears
spilled over. “I don’t wish to live in the woods, Maman. I-I don’t like the
dark. Maman, you must marry him. S’il vous plaît, you must.”

Each panic-trilled word rose
in hysteria, until Pricilla threw her arms about Hilda’s neck, sobs racking her
small form.

Hilda squeezed her tightly,
furious at Dirk’s nerve in saying such things to a child. Her child.

Kathy L Wheeler (writing as Kae Elle Wheeler) graduated
from the University of Central Oklahoma with a BA in Management Information
Systems that includes a Vocal Minor. She is an avid theater buff (holds season
tickets to Broadway Series in OKC), loves the NFL and NBA (also holds season
tickets to Thunder Basketball in OKC), loves travel, people and karaoke.

She is a member of several RWA chapters, including OKRWA,
DARA, and The Beau Monde. She writes both Contemporary and Historical romance.

Kathy/Kae lives with her musically talented husband in
Edmond, Oklahoma, has one grown daughter who recently had a baby, and one bossy
cat!